Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Happy Birthday Dad and my obsession with authority

Ever wonder about my obsession with authority figures? It comes mostly from life growing up with my Dad, the ultimate icon of rules and regulations.

"OK, Johnny here are your very first baby rules. No slobbering or puking up mushrooms on your plate."

Look at that sharp blazer he wore to his wedding. See the cool crest? I wish they still made manly clothes like that. Of course they'd have to make real men like my Dad to fit in them.

check out this movie magazine style pic of my Mom and Dad

More authority figures I am obsessed with...

"Crawl like the filthy beast you are? Only man is allowed bipedal mobility!"

Many of my cartoons are inspired by real life."I work and slave, just so I can put clothes on your back! And what thanks do I get? BACK TALK!"Not only did he put clothes on my back, he also slaved away at work every day so he could supply me with all the latest plastic weaponry, which is essential for the molding of every boy's character.

DINNER RULES

"When you bring home the bacon, then YOU can make the rules!" was a favorite sermon of his.We had lots of rules at the dinner table.

For one thing we had to use the exact utensil and hold it just right or we'd be breaking a rule that would surely bring on the end of the world.There were thousands of utensils and we had to memorize what each one was for. "That's your pickle fork! Not your juice fork! A pickle fork has 2 tines, while a juice fork only has one!"

Every time I heard a rule, I asked "Why?" which drove him crazy. "The world is built on rules! Without rules we'd go to Hell in a handbasket!"

We also had to eat everything on our plates no matter how ugly - like big hunks of ham fat, gristle, creamed cauliflower - otherwise all the little Biafran babies would starve and it would be our fault for not choking down lard.I think this used to be pretty common with parents who had grown up in the depression, but it's still a pretty funny concept to those of us who lived a life of ease our tougher parents provided for us.I find authority something I feel I have an unremitting urge to rebel against, but at the same time find entertaining. Authority figures inspire my most intense cartoons because I have lived my whole life driving them crazy and studying the results of my mischief.

This is what I saw every day coming home from playing after school.If I saw this action, it was an omen that I had done a bad thing and was about get what was coming to me.

This is what I found waiting for me if I came home with a poor grade in "Social Studies" on my report card. To this day, I still can't figure out what social studies is. Can someone explain it to me?In Summers, my Dad never wore a shirt and that was a scary sight.Especially at the cottage.I combined some different real life events starring Dad into this Ren and Stimpy scene. This is partly reminiscent of a night me and my teenage friends stayed up all night partying and singing Beatle songs with a couple of the girlfriends at our cottage on Wolf Lake. He gathered the boys all together the next day to warn us we could get "7 to 10 in the big house" for having a "gang splash".Of course, it was OK for him to flirt with all our girlfriends."Whattayahangin' around with these skinny wimps for? Ever see a man hit 4 horseshoe ringers in a row?" CLANG CLANG CLANG! Then he'd follow that up by walking on his hands for an hour and chopping a load of wood for them, while we felt pitifully wimpyin our dirty hippie hair and cut off jeans with our scrawny legs sticking out. "Hey girls, wanna see how fast I can gut a fish?" Dad would ask. Mom would roll her eyes and go make us some delicious strawberry shortcake. She had seen all this bird of paradise display before.I don't know about your Dad, but mine has the most magnificent meat stuffed fingers - about 4 times the circumference of modern day wimpy man fingers like most of us have. He must have built these up working 12 hours a day on his own Dad's farm during the depression.

These are the hands of a working man!Here's mine and my artist friends' hands.

"Listen funny boy...I know you think your old man's full of crap, but..." - these are all real lines I heard growing up.You can't make this stuff up.Here he is in retirement and he can still kick your ass. ...and catch a whole bucket of fish in the time it takes you to bait the hook.I find lawnmowers, chainsaws, outboard motors and fishing equipment funny. Why? Because my dad collected them. He had a hundred lawnmowers. The only one I was allowed to use was the worst one -otherwise it couldn't be called "work". The electric one. "You know what gas costs these days?"

So I had to maneuver around all the trees on the front lawn and get the cord tangled around all of them (in my hippie clothes) while a shadowy image of Dad stood between the slightly open curtains in the front window staring at me, rolling his eyes with disgust. Finally when he couldn't take my amateur mowing skills anymore he'd burst out the front door yelling "You Idiot! You're doing that all wrong!" He'd come out and untangle the lawn mower cord, replug it in and show me the right way to maneuver the maze. "What the Hell do they teach you in school anyways??!"Here's the cottage we always went to every year for the summer. This is where we would relive the hardships of the depression by rebuilding the delapidated houses in the hot sun, before ging out to torture innocent fish and deplete the rainforest for relaxation. That's me and my sister Elizabeth below. I hadn't figured out how to rebel yet. You can tell by the haircut he gave me with the magic "Hair Whizz". I wrote a story about the cottage starring George Liquor and my Dad. George goes up to Canada every year to Mike's cottage to live the rugged life and drink real beer, not that watered down American rat-piss.

It's about how they don't make real men anymore, and how kids these days don't know how to enjoy the outdoor life or roughing it. "We're becoming a nation of WIMPS!"

George himself has a lot of Dad in him. Except Dad doesn't hunt. I suspect he actually has secret empathy for fur-bearin' creatures even though he pretends to hate pets.

Here he is feeding a chili pepper to our beloved epileptic poodle, Jocko.

(just kidding, it's probably the mutt's savings purse)

He thinks of them as freeloaders and lectures them about getting a real job. But whenever my sister brings her cats over he plays all kinds of tricks on them and laughs his head off. He likes to put a cat toy on the end of his fishing line and put the toy in the basement, then come upstairs with the rod. As he reels it in, it pulls the catnip mouse up the stairs and the cats do backflips and practically fly up the stairs , run around the kitchen and bump into the walls trying to catch the damn thing.Here's what happens when he makes a funny - or watches Foghorn Leghorn cartoons.

Y'know my Dad has hilarious stories of when he was a rebellious youth, and his Dad was much harder on him than any modern person can imagine - and he was a Priest! He REALLY believed in discipline and enforced it with an iron fist of God.Grandpa and Grandma came over from the old country (Ruthenia) to escape ignorance, oppression, giant ornery bears and poverty, but carried with them the fear that if you didn't work your fingers to the bone 16 hours a day, you might lose everything you've gained. They were really nice to me. Grandpa kissed me (on the mouth!) every time we met and tried to convert me by scratching my lips off with his stubbly whiskers. I remember the only time he ever scolded me was when I grew long hair.He was sitting next to a picture of the greatest hippie (the guy Republicans love and ignore) in history and said: "The Lord meant for women to have long hair and men to have short hair, so I pointed to the picture and said "What about Jesus?" My dad started laughing his butt off "He's got you there Dad! You can't argue with that sonovabitch kid of mine." I could tell Grandpa wanted to make him kneel on rice kernels for 6 hours to punish him for his own back talk. Grandma, by the way made the most delicious Ukranian food and made you eat 15 helpings at a time. I never complained. See this church below? Grandpa and his friend built it themselves. Boy, men were men long ago.I combined my Dad and his Dad and turned them into Ren's Dad for "Ren Seeks Help". Double the authority in one ultra intense character and I got my Dad to do his voice.

You can't beat real life for story material. That's why I can't take modern animated features which seem to be made by people who have never met other people, and only get their ideas from other animated features.

Seriously. What is this crap?Why do they keep making it over and over and over again??It's unbelievable to me.They must have a computer program thatclones other features and slightly mixes up the order of the plots.

They need some discipline from authority figures to beat some real life into their mushy backsides.

"Did I hear 'discipline'??"

Here's a fairly recent picture of my biggest inspiration showing off his collection of of my cartoon art through the ages.

Happy Birthday Dad! Have lots more!

The perfectly average nuclear family of the 60s

Love,your disobedient son,John

______________________________

DAD'S RESPONSE

So I do not know why you hate discipline so much, and why I get frustrated for stupidness whether my kids or myself.

I realy beleive every child should have 2 yrs of military service, where they teach you discipline. cleanliness, respect for their superiors and put up with situations that might cost them their lives to protect the masses that laugh at respect and expect the world owes them a living.

85 comments:

Great insight to those characters. Never realized that there aren't that many authority figures in today's cartoons. Maybe i'm wrong but nothing comes to mind. I'm glad you explained the orgin of that episode. when i was younger that episode always reminded me of my dad and his hands and my puny puny little.

Good fun reading about your Dad and what a character to use in caroons...

My Dad was more of an artist and in the early years more bohemian. He had huge side burns lived with his wife (my Mum) for 5 years on a houseboat before having to get a small house when I was born. The boat had no electrictity or a proper shower and they went to Mum's parents to use the washing machine and have a proper wash.

My Dad painted all the time and did some imagnative stuff..he was a Graphic Designer though did get frustrated as the work could be boring when he wanted to draw more pictures and adverts rather than page layouts all the time.

We also had to have table manners... the ambiance..we had while eating dinner was loud Jazz!! which Mum often asked to be turned down.

Dad got me into drawing cartoons and often drew comics together we would draw a page a day then put them together.

He was great at sandcastles and it used to be a whole palace..

my Dad had very strong points of views..everyone else was wrong...he never wanted to show weakness...and was very brave when he got Cancer and died very quickly. I'm proud of my Dad..and what great memories I have and he gave me a love of drawing cartoons.:)

It's great that you appreciate your Dad and use him for inspiration. My Dad reminded me of the Marlboro man. I grew up on a ranch and my Pop was always riding his horse with his rifle by his side. Here I am in suburbia...sheesh!

First of all, happy birthday to your dad (a little late)and I´d never have thought it was autobiographical, that´s obviously why your most intense and funnier characters (in my opinion) are those related to authority and rebellion, they are caricatures from your own experiences.

My dad is almost as yours, I felt like I could have written that article with those same words myself haha.

John, That was friggin AWESOME!!! Great writing. I laughed my ass off this morning, especially the part about the lawn mowers! I do the same thing to my teenage boys today...bursting out the door in a rage about their lack of mowing skill!THANK YOU VERY MUCH for the great laugh today.

HiI think we all have funny and bizarre memories with our dads. One of mine is that once my dad, my mom, me and my brothers went out to a park to take sun and have fun, and suddenly our dad was like: "OK kids, eat some grass!" We were like "WHAT!!?!?!" And he was like: "Yep, you never know what would happen... you have to be prepared for anything in life, so start eating grass... ". We tell him that if we're going to eat it, he have to eat it too, so he replied "Why I have to eat? I've eaten grass on my days, hard times... but now I don't have to, so shut up and start eating grass kids!" Well, we eat that grass, and after all it didn't taste that bad. For me it was like, "Wow!, now I've tasted anything", haha.Now I think that if I have kids, I'll make them eat some grass, just to have fun and to pass the legacy, haha.Well, give my regards to your dad, and thank him for give you some memories that we all can enjoy.Bye,Carlo

Now, i understand everything, ren and stimpy show, and the ripping friends, but... each cartoon yours is politically incorrect, why are so different and border, you put fury on them, an act of rebellion, I think,anyway, nothing is more funny, make fun of real life problems.

Authority figures. Role models. There aren't enough of them. My dad still inspires me. He sat me down when I was a kid and said "watch this". We watched the Three Stooges, Marx Brothers and old westerns. He'd watch cartoons with us and laugh harder than we did. Good times. Good memories. This is almost a post for Father's Day. Thanks, dad. Thanks, John. Thanks and Happy Birthday, Mr. Kricfalusi.

My own dad used to remind me a lot of yours. As soon as he was out of high school he was in the army reserves, then in the Navy. When the cold war ended, he lost his job and got a new one in the Royal Australian Air Force. Then he joined the Federal Police.When he got tired of all that, he joined the National Crime Authority. They merged with some lawyer company so he got a new job at the Crime Commission.So he was a colossal hardass. One of those guys whose world revolves around rules, service and patriotism.

Then out of nowhere he was hit with a midlife crisis and nowadays he is a crazy science fiction writer who spends most of his free time watching movies and British comedies.

your authority characters were always some of my favorites. especially anthony's dad. that cartoon is utterly horrifying, you can really feel the intrinsic terror in ren and stimpy it's amazing. something about that combination of getting reprimanded/letting down someone you respect because they're obviously much of of a man than you is devastating!

also! there's what looks to be a storyboard drawing in there of george and your dad talking; it's not all confined to squares, i think only one is, but it's obviously story drawings. that's awesome! it makes me feel a lot better too, sometimes drawing in the squares drives me nuts and my drawings start to degrade as i go, staying loose and being a bit "all over" really help me bust out the story drawings, then boxing them into framing can come when i tighten them up.

I love your dad. He reminds me a lot of my own father, only much more intense and crazy (in a good way - of course I didn't have to live with your dad growing up!).

My dad was also in the military, and a manly-man. I heard that in the olden-days he had his crazy rules, but... he had a lot of kids, so by the time he got to me (the youngest), most of those rules were gone. I think he was just tired out from trying to enforce them. I could have gotten away with a LOT... only I'm such a goodie two-shoes I never tried. What a waste!

You can't beat real life for story material. That's why I can't take modern animated features which seem to be made by people who have never met other people, and only get their ideas from other animated features.

When I watched A Visit to Anthony the first time, I knew instantly that some dialogue pieces must have happened in real life, because they sound totally real.

Great entry. It gave me a good chuckle and reminded me of my old folks, who also grew up in the depression.

I'm pretty amazed and shocked that you actually got your dad to do the voice of Ren's father! Has he seen that cartoon finished?? My mom would have a heart attack if she even knew I had a cartoon like that in my collection. "It's rahht outta the pits o' hayell!" (She's from kentucky.)

Happy, Happy Birthday Senior Kricfalusi! May you continue to inspire John and thank YOU John, for the insight & the example of how cartoons can be a vibrant, entertaining comment on one's own life experiences. Your entertaining descriptions of your family life, & the lovely pictures of them & you when you were young were most enjoyable. I feel compelled to let you know that although I TOO was forever harassing my loved ones from an unforgivably young age with the tyranny of "WHY?" They provided me with the underlying reasoning for all the "do's" & the few "don'ts" of life that prevented, in me, a desire to rebel. But unfortunately for THEM, in my knowing and being able to fully comprehend the reasoning behind many 'rules' -- my family members then suffered the tyranny of -"What If."(Which was co-incidentally, my nickname for years.) My Grandmother had to make a rule when I was little, called "Never on a Sunday." (As in, No "What-If-ing" on that day, because she needs a day off.) Needless to say it was broken many times.

He reminds me a lot of my grandpa. He decided how things should be back in the sixties, and came up with a set of rules and routines to live his daily life by. And he's still doing it.

He's had two bowls of raisin bran for breakfast every day for 50 years. His favorite window cleaning soap has been out of production for years, and his windows haven't been "properly cleaned since the seventies."

He's also been retired for 20 years, but still wears his company issued work pants, and the same white western shirts every single day.

I just recently purchased the Ren & Stimpy uncut seasons 1&2, and was really overjoyed to see the shows that I missed (and was denied).The "Visit to Anthony" episode was of particular interest. It totally was spot on with the anxiety staged by the mind games played by Anthonys father.

Anyone who's been through anything like that can't help but shutter.

Well, I was talking to my friend about that episode and I was like, "man John K's dad must have been a true disciplinarian". Turns out I was right.

I've heard conflicting things about how much of Visit to Anthony was done by Spumco and how much was finished by Games, or not what you intended. I was wondering if that could be cleared up, out of curiosity? I've always wanted to know this.

"I've heard conflicting things about how much of Visit to Anthony was done by Spumco and how much was finished by Games, or not what you intended. I was wondering if that could be cleared up, out of curiosity?"

I wrote the story-everyone contributed gags as always, but it's obviously 99% my point of view, because it's all about my Dad.

Jim Smith did most of the storyboard. I did many of the layouts and so did Jim of the most intense Dad scenes.

I directed the recordings of all the characters EXCEPT my Dad, ironically and was very disappointed when I heard it.

It sounded like the actor didn't know the story and was reading it for the first time, so he didn't give it the meaning that the drawings conveyed. It was a professional live action actor and I think whoever directed him was afraid to actually give him any direction. And also didn't know my Dad.

Some of the layouts were done at Games, but they just blew up Jim's beautiful storyboard panels and cleaned them up.I looked at the storyboard the other day and it looks just like the finished picture.

Bill and Scott must have done the backgrounds and they are beautiful. Teale probably color keyed the characters and did a great job of it.

I think the animation was done at Rough Draft and it was amazing. The fireplace scene was especially impressive with all the cool effects.

The sound effects and music was clumsy and inappropriate as per usual in the Games episodes. That's something they just never got, even though I sent them a long treatise on how to make the sound match the moods of the story.

i grew up with depression era grandparents and i heard all the same things you did about eating, working and yes discipline.most of the kids i grew up thought i was crazy cause i actually believed that stuff and actually applied it! to this day i beat myself up a little when i do something wrong or take the easy way out. your dad was right and we have become a nation of wimps,live in new york (where im from) and you see that entitlement feeling everywhere and with everyone! my own dad fixes everything, houses,cars,pipes,you name it! and i always feel like a wimp when i watch him work, even when im working with him he still manages to do it all! god bless him and your dad, we need more manly men these days! happy birthday Mr. Kricfalusi!

Hey! I have that exact picture of Jesus. Thanks for sharing your story of your Dad. It's true. When I grew up, all of the dad's seemed to be manly men. Back in those days people got married young. My parents got hitched when they were 19. I compare the role models of yester year to the men of today. I look at people now and wonder, what happened? I look at people in their twenties and they don't have the maturity to be adults. Thank God for our dad's. People our age, at least have memories of the mans man in real life. Every one else, will only know the mans man from television reruns. They'll think a mans man was just a fictional character. Again, thanks for sharing your memories.

The Real Man of my family was my deceased grandpa, Jack. He presided over a branch of the Toronto Dominion Bank for most of his life. He never laid a finger on my Mom or even raised his voice at her, except for the time she wrecked his car somehow. My Grandma on my Mom's side was the crazy one - maybe I shouldn't say that since she's dead too, but realistically she kinda was. She was real nice to me, but back in the say, so my Mom says, she actually owned a Heat To The Seat brand ass paddle. It was her Prized Bludgeoning Oar, so to speak. She had mountains of repressed angst about being a dirty indian - Mohawk, to be exact. Such was the thirties.

My Dad was the product of a neurotic, bitter space cadet of a Dad -proud furrier, proud croatian, modest but talented painter- and a neurotic, loopy Mom. I love them both dearly, but it's true. My great-grandpa on my dad's side sent him away from hope as a teen, saying "come back when you're a REAL man!"My own dad hitchhiked across seemily all of eurasia at the age of eighteen. He recommends it to everyone. He used to direct theatre. He acts. He's a damn good armchair market analyst, He teaches presentation skills. He's weirdly gruff one minute and effeminate the next, like Ren or George. My mom is frank ALMOST to the point of being rude. It's hilarous sometime. Her favorite saying "I'm always right." She is.

I never realized that some of your characters are based off of real influences like your Dad. By the looks of it, he was very strict to certain extremes, especially at the dinner table. By I can understand about table manners because it gets to all of us(even with me). Boy, I do not want to mess with you Dad or get him angry. I hope that your dad has a good birthday.

I love your dads response. He probably thinks he was too easy on you. That's why you are such a sass mouth.

Happy Birthday Mr. Kricfalusi, and many more.

The picture of that cabin looks awesome, Ill bet that was fun. And George and Mike together is just funny. The hunter and the fisherman. MANLY MEN! Doing manly things. Drinkin' beer and killin' gods creatures.

Maybe that's why "Can without labels" seems so awesome too, cause it's based on real stories. I also love the shot on the porche that Vincent Waller pointed out.

As for authority figures in modern cartoons...Mr. Herriman in Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends is kind of an authority figure. He's a little old and not so strong, but he can be very tough with rules.

And now, a petition. It's possible that you'd post something about Angory Napkin in the future? I bought the comic book and I loved it. Since you wrote the prologue to it and the pilot episode of the animated series airs tomorrow in internet, it'd be nice to read your comments about it.

OH! Thanks GODS you are back! PLEASE! NEver go away again! That was the most horrible time of my LIFE! (yes...I guess I've had a cushy one...)

I think authority is funny especially when people demand it and don't have any...there was this work colleague once...and also my mom...and a teacher... oh so many... incredibly funny people all of them.

supremely agree with the real life stories... you cannot make that stuff up!

He reminds me of my dad. He has five brothers, and they had to work hard when they were young, because my grampa passed away when they were kids and my grandma couldn't get high paying jobs. My dad entered the navy when he was 15, and he taught me how to shoot, swim, respect my elders and be a man. My mom taught me how to draw, so I was all set!

One of my earliest memories with my dad is about me sitting on his lap watching WB shorts. We really liked the Bugs Bunny ones, we laughed our asses off. I think that's a memory you and I share, in a way.

My dad is a great guy, and he of course ahted the fact that I considered a "creative" career- I'm studying graphic design and plan to become an animator. But still, he just let me be. That's how awesome he is.

"It's about how they don't make real men anymore, and how kids these days don't know how to enjoy the outdoor life or roughing it. "We're becoming a nation of WIMPS!"

That's happening down here in South America too, with an alarming rate. Thankfully my dad taught me the ways of the wild before I became a useless wimp, and I'm ever thankful for that.

And also? When I was a kid and did stupid or mean things, I never heard "go to your room" or "you can't go out to play". No no no, my mom or my dad spanked me and that was it. And because I learned early on my life that if I did bad things I was going to get spanked, I became a productive member of society.

Nowadays if a parent spanks his kids, he's got the feds and all the newspapers over his ass. That's kinda weird to me.

Happy Birthday from Chile, Mr Kricfalusi senior! Now excuse me, I have to call my dad and tell him that I love him.

Social studies is that stuff I gave you from Ken Wilber that you said was too intellectual to read so you posted for everyone else to argue about. I was freakin honored and amazed you made a separate blog entry of course. That was a true regard for society which I would think is the aim of social studies. So you must have learned it innately.

Oh, it reminds me so much of my Dad. He always hated animals around the house too. When I was 11, my first dog died, and I vividly remember Dad all upset about who-knows-what, but his face was beet-red and eyes bulged as he shouted "NO MORE PETS!!!" to my wee brothers and I. We were scared stiff. Yet he'd cozy up to my cat whenever I brought her home. He gets his temper from his mother/my Grandma, who starts throwing objects out of the house. She's nearing 80 now, but when I'll always remember the time she go so mad she started throwing bicycles out of the garage.

You're right John, the best material comes from those in your life! And a happy birthday to Mr. Kricfalusi!

Happy Birthday Mr. K - and remember, it's never too late to administer discipline to unruly spawn. (BTW, I agree about the mandatory 2 years of military training. That would've saved two generations from being perverted by dirty hippies!)

Regarding that Princess and the Frog movie, I'm still going to see it, and I recommend others to do the same, because even it sucks, if it does well enough, then Hollywood will finally get the idea that traditional animation is still viable, and we might get some real good films down the road in the not-too distant future. Maybe Ralph Bakshi will get a chance to complete that Coney Island feature of his, and maybe some Spumco veterans will at some point get to cut loose on a theatrical project (optimistic, I know).

Happy Birthday Mr. Kricfalusi. You resemble Jason Robards(another real man). Except you're better-looking, not to mention happily still here among us. Thanks for the inspiration you transmuted to John et al!